The Star Count 2014 results are now published and can be seen by clicking here. From this reference you can download a very detailed map of the results, showing the entire UK. Click here for a smaller version.

The results overall reflect a disappointing continuation of the growth of light pollution across the UK, but there are some encouraging trends that may slow or even help to reduce the growth as discussed in the news article.

On the positive side, no fewer than seven results were submitted from the area around Newport, the largest cluster of results anywhere in rural Wales. The picture shows the results for our area with none of the results being red. Some of the results were the best possible and overall they confirm that our area has some of the best conditions for viewing stars in the entire UK.

This followed the meeting we held in February 2014 to promote Star Count 2014, and the talk about "Dark Skies over Pembrokeshire" given last year at Newport Boat Club.

Well done to those who submitted results!

Finally, we should note that there is a local astronomy society, the Preseli Astronomy Group, who operate from Letterston, for those interested in taking their interest in the stars further.

Finally one of our group actually won a second prize for their submission - a book about the dark skies threat (we suspect drawn at random)!